What will it be in 2018? How will the Supreme Court adjudicate voting rights in the Wisconsin gerrymandering case? What body of law will control the decision in the Colorado baker case: religious freedom, marriage equality, freedom of speech, or something else? How do search and seizure protections apply to cell phone data? What will happen, if anything, in the area of executive power and immigration? And what impact will the appointment of Associate Justice Gorsuch have on the mix of these cases?

With a focus on a few highly anticipated cases, CMC's George Thomas will moderate a discussion with Leah Litman, assistant professor of law at UCI and former clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Eugene Volokh, professor of law at UCLA and former clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Leah Litman is assistant professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law where she teaches and writes on constitutional law with a particular focus on federalism and federal post-conviction review. Her publications have appeared or will appear in leading law reviews around the country. She is an active blogger at Take Care, and a guest host on First Mondays, a podcast about the Supreme Court. She also maintains an active pro bono practice and has served as counsel in several recent cases including as counsel to the family of Jesus Hernandez in Hernandez v. Mesa, a case involving a cross-border shooting and Whole Woman’s Health in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a successful challenge to two Texas restrictions on abortion. She also regularly files amicus briefs in the Supreme Court and the courts of appeal.

A graduate of the University of Michigan’s Law School, she clerked first for Judge Sutton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and then Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the faculty at UCI, she was a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School and practiced for two years at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr.

Eugene Volokh is professor of law at UCLA Law School where he teaches First Amendment law and a First Amendment amicus brief clinic; he has also often taught criminal law, copyright law, tort law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy. In addition to his academic work, he has also filed briefs in about 75 appellate cases throughout the country, has argued in over 20 federal and state appellate cases, and has filed briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (6th ed. 2016) and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 75 widely published and frequently cited law review articles. He is a member of The American Law Institute; a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel; the founder and co-author of The Volokh Conspiracy, a Weblog that was hosted by the Washington Post and is now at Reason Magazine; and an academic affiliate for the Mayer Brown LLP law firm.

A graduate of UCLA Law School, he clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Funding for this Athenaeum panel is co-sponsored by the President's Leadership Fund.